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Highlights from Day Two of the AFL-CIO Convention

Kaveh Sardari, AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka opened the second day of the AFL-CIO 2017 Convention talking about economic rules and the independent political voice for working people:

It’s the simple idea that the economy is not like the weather. It doesn’t just happen to us.

The economy is nothing but a set of rules. The rules are written by the men and women we elect—and sadly, politicians in both parties have presided over these rules.

Those rules decide the winners and the losers, and for nearly four decades, they’ve been written to ensure working people are the losers.

Policy is what shapes the economy, and for almost 40 years too many of those policies have produced an economy that benefits the rich and the well-connected and doomed millions to compete for the scraps leftover.

Brothers and sisters, this must end. Our movement is the great equalizer in an otherwise cruel economy.

If the question is, how to do we correct this rigged economy? The answer is simple: through strong unions and more bargaining power....

We need to...